Four Notices of Federal Tax Lien recorded against Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney at the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds total $2,372,493.24 in unpaid federal income tax, according to records published Tuesday by Boston Herald columnist and radio host Howie Carr. The instruments name Kevin J. Reddington of Marshfield, cover tax years 2018 through 2024, and were recorded between March 2021 and January 2026. Carr published photographs of all four documents. He reported that Reddington did not return calls seeking comment.
Owing money to the Internal Revenue Service is not a crime and is not a finding of wrongdoing by anyone. What a recorded lien is, what its dollar figures do and do not mean, and why this surfaced in the middle of a fight about a juror’s unpaid rent are the subjects of this piece.
What was recorded
The published images show four documents on IRS Form 668(Y)(c), the standard Notice of Federal Tax Lien, each bearing the recording stamp of Register John R. Buckley, Jr. and the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds. Each names “KEVIN J REDDINGTON,” lists a Marshfield address with the street line redacted in the published images, and identifies the kind of tax as Form 1040, which is individual income tax.
The first, at Book 54595, Page 302, recorded March 17, 2021, covers tax years 2018 and 2019 in the amounts of $230,863.76 and $360,296.67, for a stated total of $591,160.43.
The second, at Book 55951, Page 210, recorded November 2, 2021, covers 2020 in the amount of $509,661.92.
The third, at Book 60114, Page 314, recorded July 7, 2025, covers 2021, 2022 and 2023, for a stated total of $1,033,975.50.
The fourth, at Book 60784, Page 90, recorded January 29, 2026, covers 2024 in the amount of $237,695.39.
The four stated totals sum to $2,372,493.24, which matches the figure Carr reported to the cent. That internal consistency is worth noting, because it is the kind of check a reader can run without leaving this page. Carr’s year-by-year list differs from the document images by two cents on the 2022 line, which is a transcription rounding and not a discrepancy of substance.
This publication has not independently inspected the recorded instruments. The book and page numbers above are the means by which anyone can. Recorded land records are public, and Plymouth County’s are searchable through the registry.
What a Notice of Federal Tax Lien actually is
This is the part that is routinely misdescribed, including in some of the commentary now circulating.
A federal tax lien arises automatically by operation of law when the IRS assesses a tax, sends notice and demand, and the taxpayer does not pay. The lien exists whether or not anything is recorded. What gets recorded at a registry of deeds is a notice of that lien, and its only function is to tell the world, so that the government’s claim takes priority over later purchasers, lenders and other creditors.
Three consequences follow. The lien attaches to all of the taxpayer’s property and rights to property, not only to the house at the address listed, so calling these “liens on his mansion” understates and misstates them. The notice is not a court judgment and no judge reviewed it. And it is not a criminal matter. Failure to pay assessed tax is a civil debt. Criminal tax charges require willful evasion and are brought by the Department of Justice, and no such charge against Reddington has been reported.
What the dollar figures do not tell you
The column on the form is headed “Unpaid Balance of Assessment,” and it is a snapshot as of the date the notice was prepared. It is not a current balance.
A taxpayer who has been paying down a liability for years will still have the original figure showing on the recorded document, because the IRS does not amend a recorded notice as payments come in. The agency issues a Certificate of Release, Form 668(Z), when the liability is fully satisfied, and that release is recorded separately. Carr reported that no discharge appears in the records. That is consistent with an unpaid balance, and it is also consistent with a balance being paid down under an installment agreement, because no release issues until the liability is satisfied in full.
The figures also exclude nothing. Interest and penalties continue to accrue after assessment and are not reflected on the face of the notice, so the amount owed on any of these years could be higher than what is printed rather than lower.
Each document also lists a “Last Day for Refiling,” which the images show running from December 2029 through December 2035. Those dates track the ten-year period the government has to collect after assessment. When that period expires without a refiling, the lien is released by operation of law. The earliest date on these documents is still more than three years away, so none has lapsed.
The honest summary is that the records establish that the IRS assessed substantial income tax against Reddington for seven tax years, that it had not been paid at the time each notice issued, and that no release has been recorded. They do not establish what he owes today.
Why this surfaced now
Because of a fight about $12,000.
After the Clancy mistrial on September 4, the lone holdout juror was identified online and then by the Boston Globe, which reported his court record, including a pending eviction with a judgment of more than $12,000 in unpaid rent. That reporting has been used by people on both sides of the case to argue about the juror’s character. We covered how the identification happened and what the law reaches in our report on the naming of the juror, and the indefinite sealing of the jury list in our report on the impoundment order.
Reddington has been publicly critical of that juror. He moved in open court to have him removed, telling Judge William Sullivan the juror “refuses to listen to the law” on reasonable doubt, a motion the judge denied. He later told Fox News, “I was angry because of his refusal to follow the law,” and said the other eleven jurors had been “robbed.”
The tax records were published into that argument, by a commentator making a point about which unpaid debts get attention. Readers can weigh that context for themselves. The records are what they are regardless of why they were published, and so are the limits on what they show.
Whether it bears on his law license
Not directly, and not automatically. Massachusetts does not treat a personal tax debt as professional misconduct in itself. The Rules of Professional Conduct reach conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. A lawyer who simply owes the IRS money has not, without more, violated either. Bar discipline for tax matters in Massachusetts has generally followed criminal convictions for failure to file or for evasion, not civil liens.
The separate matter is that Reddington is already facing a four-count petition for discipline filed by Bar Counsel in June, which we reported in Bar Counsel’s four-count petition. Those counts concern IOLTA account record-keeping, the use of one client’s trust funds for another client’s matter, and fee and communication issues in two cases. None of the four counts concerns taxes. The petition and the liens are separate matters, and nothing in the public record connects them.
Reddington has not responded publicly to the tax records. He remains Clancy’s trial counsel, and appellate lawyer Martin Weinberg has now joined her defense to argue a double jeopardy motion, as we reported yesterday.
How to look up a lien yourself
Notices of Federal Tax Lien are recorded at the registry of deeds for the county where the taxpayer resides or owns property, and they are indexed by name. Plymouth County records are available through the registry’s online search and at the registry in Plymouth. A search by grantor name will return recorded instruments with their book and page numbers, and the document images can be viewed or ordered.
If you are looking at a lien notice, check three things. The recording date, which tells you when the notice was filed rather than when the tax was owed. The date of assessment for each tax period, which starts the collection clock. And whether a Certificate of Release has been recorded afterward, which is a separate document and the only reliable indication in the land records that the liability was satisfied.
Common questions
What is a Notice of Federal Tax Lien?
A public notice, recorded at a registry of deeds on IRS Form 668(Y)(c), that the government has a lien on a taxpayer’s property for an assessed and unpaid tax. The lien itself arises by law when tax is assessed and not paid; the recording only gives notice and establishes priority against other creditors.
Does a recorded lien mean the money is still owed?
Not necessarily. The printed figure is the unpaid balance as of the date the notice was prepared. The IRS does not update a recorded notice as payments are made and issues a Certificate of Release only when the liability is fully satisfied.
Is owing back taxes a crime?
No. Failure to pay an assessed tax is a civil debt. Criminal tax offenses require willfulness and are separately charged. No criminal tax charge against Kevin Reddington has been reported.
Can a lawyer be disciplined for tax debt?
Not for the debt alone under Massachusetts rules. Discipline in tax matters has generally followed criminal convictions for failure to file or evasion rather than civil liens.
Are these records public?
Yes. Recorded land records, including federal tax lien notices, are public and searchable by name at the county registry of deeds.
The lien records were published by Howie Carr on September 16, 2026, in a post that included photographs of four recorded instruments; this publication reviewed those images and confirmed that the four document totals sum to the reported figure, but has not independently inspected the records at the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds. Book and page numbers are given above so that readers can. Reddington’s courtroom statement and his Fox News remarks are as reported by CNN and Fox News, September 3 through 10, 2026. Bar Counsel’s petition is as reported in our September 12 article. Kevin Reddington has not publicly responded to the tax records and faces no reported criminal tax charge. General information about tax and Massachusetts law, not legal advice.